Zigeunerkind Im Dorf 1928

Otto Mueller made this painting of a Roma child in a village with tempera on canvas. It's interesting how the powdery, matte surface almost feels like fresco. Look at the way he's laid down the color – these soft, muted tones of pink, green, and grey. The paint isn’t trying to trick you into thinking it’s real. Instead, it feels like a memory, or maybe a dream, where everything is just a little bit hazy. The forms are simplified, blocky even, but there's a real tenderness in the way he captures the light on those simple houses. The two figures walking in the water become a subtle focal point. Mueller was part of Die Brücke, a group of German Expressionist artists, but unlike some of his peers, his work always maintained a certain quietness, a kind of melancholic beauty. You might see some similarities with other painters like Paula Modersohn-Becker, in their shared interest in depicting everyday life with a kind of honest simplicity. It’s as if Mueller is whispering a story, not shouting it.